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"If you can read this, you are TOO CLOSE".
Shame on me, I could actually read it...
Does it say: CAUTION RIGHT LANE CAMPER!
(find your own damn camping area?)
Bumper Sticker Suggestion: Back Off - No Drafting Allowed!!
TB
you know, i also wanted to get a PA horn hooked up to a cb back when you used to run one, i think i subconciously procrastinated in getting it because i figured i may escalate a situation to deadly road rage, but sometimes you really have a burning desire to say something don't you....
karz
As long as its someone else that pays for it, just keep on LLC and doing those brake checks.
>>>>> Innocent poeple who are not tailgating but following generally too close will get into accidents<<<<<
Ummm, ok, maybe the definitions have changed and following too closely no longer = tailgating.
By the way, recently I have found that simply sticking my hand out the sliding rear window and calmly waving people back while gradually slowing down is pretty effective at making people back off. REmember PAt, I am never, EVER tailgated when the roads are clear because I'm either in the right lane or doing well over 80 mph passing cars on the left. IT happens most often in slower traffic where all lanes are doing 60-65 mph for as far as the eye can see but MR. or Mrs. I'm so special thinks their time is more important and they think if they ride 3 inches away from the car in front of them long enough then the magic traffic fairy will suddenly give their car the ability to fly over all the congestion and get them where they need to go on time.
I hate to be sexist, OK I don't hate it, but I generally see young women performing the most frequent and unnecessary lane changes. I once observed a young lady doing constant lane changes in heavy traffic. After about a half hour of this, she was still only right in front of me. NOTE TO FREQUENT LANE CHANGERS: you do not need to turn your head completely around when changing lanes to your right. If I can see your face through your back window you've turned your head too far. You do not need to see BEHIND you - that's what your rear view mirror is for.
So if tailgating is following too closely because the anal pore in front of me pulled in too close, then I am a tailgator. The anal pore is the tail gatee. That is what high beams and fog lights are for, so they can now see me. I must have been in stealth mode without them. .
Maybe that's why everybody gets so frustrated in traffic. I know it's one of the things that drives me nuts, these drivers who don't think other cars have the right to enter their lane at any time, so they make sure to stay less than a car length from the car in front at all times and accelerate even closer if they see anybody even looking towards their lane, cause we all know those lane changers have to be stopped! Sometimes I know it's difficult, and I have to actively remind myself that slowing to let someone into my lane every now and than really doesn't cause me much time and pays dividends in helping maintain the peace. Don't get me wrong, if someone's trying to bully their way through and cut me off I dont let them disrupt my normal driving pattern, but I dont see how a car coming into the lane in front of me really harms me in any meaningful way.
When you try to shut out those looking to change lanes others are unable to make their turn, get over to reach their exit, pass slower cars, etc...This makes things more frustrating for you if you try to block out someone like me at a time when I absolutely have to get over for one reason or another, because you'll find that one way or another they'll end up in front of you whether you like it or not. And you'll just end up giving yourself more of a reason to be mad.
My suggsetion is to lay back, relax, wave someone in front of you every once in awhile. My rule of thumb is that if you find yourself constantly trying to prevent other drivers from doing things rather than trying to make it easier for them, you're probably giving yourself unnecessary stress.
I agree with you. Even if it is fairly obvious that I am behind some folks in the left lane in front of you; if a vehicle behind me indicates that he wants to pass, I get out of their way when safe. Then if I wantI can move back in behind him and tailgate!?
If there is no traffic, I almost always get out of an overtaking cars' WAY long before he CAN pass or practically, is within legal and safe following distance. I don't NEED some guy 3 feet off my rear bumper to know that he wants to pass! I think those that do should wake up and use the rear view mirrors!!! AND do the correct thing. I know this is probably too much and too difficult thing to ask!! This is probably why it is perfectly legal to pass on the right!
What you are saying is true in an ideal world, but this is not an ideal world... if you tried driving like on on Rt 17 in NJ for example, you might as well stop the car and get out because you would never actually move forward.
If you leave more than a car length between yourself and the person in front of you (sometimes even less) someone *will* cut in front of you, usually without trying to match speeds, which means you have to slam on the brakes starting a potentially dangerous cascade. In some situations, the *safe* way to drive is to, within limits, drive in such a way that is technically tailgating.
If you don't adapt your driving to the road conditions, you are a danger to yourself and others.
The beltway around DC is a great example...left exits, right exits, multi-interstate interchanges, non-stop construction projects, and confusing signage if you're not familiar with the road. This is an impossible road to reasonably expect lane discipline unless it is in the wee hours of the morning.
As congestion increases when it gets to the point that lane changing is difficult then the lane changing (even for a good cause) disrupts the flow of traffic. At that point, it is better to get in a lane and stay there. This is something often learned by experience, maturity, or additional responsibilties...some time you need to drive in a manner that is best for everyone on the road and not focus on optimizing your own driving experience. I do recommend using some judgement about what lane you decide to use long-term...don't pick the left lane unless you are willing to keep up with the top 10-15% of traffic speed-wise.
Courtesy pays big dividends in keeping traffic moving smoothly. One of my pet peeves is folks that refuse to zipper merge. If someone is parked on my bumper to prevent someone from getting in front of them I'll often ease up a bit so I can let 2 cars in.
Nope, I am after the honest to goodness LLC: the one who does it by choice or ignorance, not the one that does it due to traffic.
I try not to tailgate, because tailgating reduces my options in driving. But trying to leave the proper space only invites lane hoppers to fill in that space. Maintaining the proper following distance is impossible. That space I try to leave just plain fills up with cars. It is not possible to leave the proper distance and move at all.
BTW this is every lane, not just the left lane.
There are some roads where you need to space yourself at (1 carlength + 2 feet) from the person in front of you, to prevent offering temptation to idiot drivers who would cut you off in a heartbeat if they thought it would work (i.e. drivers on Rt 17) and would then cause horrible braking cascades that would get the person 4 cars behind you rear-ended.
There are some roads where you can and should space yourself properly, by-the-book, and if someone is driving aggressively just let him through.
Just like you can't drive the same way in clear weather and snow, you can't drive the same way on a normal open road and on a madhouse.
I am just stating that on certain Interstate roads, during rush hour, it is impossible to maintain the two second rule from the car ahead of you. There is always a car moving into that space. It is a never ending process. Many times the left lane comes to a complete stop because that is where most drivers seem to congegate.
I am of the opinion that the left lane should never stop and should continue to move even during rush hour. That is not the case. So many drivers are cutting into the left lane that it stops, mostly due to the ripple effect, and the center lane moves along faster than the left.
I would never have done that when I was 18 years old and felt indestructible.
What's even more interesting is that my girlfriend saw a car and driver of the identical description enter a freeway the wrong direction via an exit ramp. He realized his error and made a U-turn. Must have been the same guy.
I feel sorry for the guy. I feel even more sorry for anyone he directly or indirectly kills as a result of his utter incompetence.
Also, I saw another car fluttering around in its lane driven by a jackass moron who had a thick Yellow Pages-sized book open and laying on his steering wheel, pointing out parts of it to his passenger.
Definitely "inconsiderate" although that's a very nice word for blocking lanes deliberately and playing around with your cellphone while people need to pass.
Sometimes I wish I had more torque. >:(
You can block a road, screw over some driver by boxing him in so be can't take his exit, whatever. Call the state police, works around here.
Meanwhile I stayed in the middle lane and actually made forward progress, watching her cut from lane to lane repeatedly as she disappeared in my mirror. Some people just dont get traffic strategy. There's times when a few quick, strategic lane changes will get you away from a congested throng of cars, and times when all that constant work of changing lanes and bullying your way through traffic gets you absolutely nothing except into even more traffic.
Cheesh!
Following me, with my tail lights to guide him, and the hole my truck made in the fog made him think I was going too slow. After passing me, he finds his head light do not handle fog as well as mine, and he can only go 40. I stopped and topped off my half filled tank at Grand detour. There is a long passing lane 1/2 mile ahead over the bridge, but I was tired of looking at him.
Harry
;^)
A few weeks ago I was driving on the Jersey Turnpike and encountered someone in a silver Prelude who was both aggressive and timidly incompetent at the same time. Very odd and annoying combination.
When I first encountered him was on a 4 lane stretch, I was in the leftmost lane passing folks (of course). He came up from behind in the rightmost lane (the other passing lane) at a very high rate of speed, cuts across one lane then another and passes me one lane to my right. But there's a car in his lane a couple hundred feet ahead that we're both gaining on, he somewhat faster than I, but at the time there was more than enough room to move left in front of me (and the speeds would have matched nicely). Instead, he slams on the brakes and matches speeds with the car in front of him, so now I'm moving faster than he is. And he waits there. And then just at the very last second he cuts in front of me, moving slower than me, so I'm forced to slam on the brakes to keep from hitting him. Idiot. Then he zooms off. Don't worry, I saw him again.
Next time I saw him was on the Turnpike extention on my way to the Bayonne Bridge, on that little bridge to Jersey City. Climbing the bridge, he was a couple of hundred feet ahead of me (all that crazy-stupid driving and that was the best he could do?) when all of a sudden there is this eruption of what looks somewhat like mist, somewhat like blueish/grayish smoke up ahead in my lane. It cleared fairly quickly, but I got out of the lane anyway, just in time to see the same Prelude, this time pulled over to the right on the shoulder with smoke pouring out of it. It seems his engine didn't like him any more than I did.
The engine in the model he was driving has a pretty good reputation. But between abuse, lack of maintenance, possibly poorly thought out mods...
I thought it was really cool that something took him off the road without requiring there to be a pile of flaming wreckage somewhere.
The not cool part is that he was driving very slowly, yet every time someone tried to pass him he would physically block them. For a good percentage of the length of the straightaway he drove straddling the white line, blocking both lanes. Slowly.
I don't understand it myself. If you're going to spend money restoring an old car, why drive it like you're trying to wreck it?
"The closer you get, the slower I go"
Now, why on earth would anyone encourage road rage like that?
On a similar note, my aunt got one of the first PT Cruisers - you know, back when everyone wanted one and nobody could get one. She got a license plate holder that said something like "Like my car? Dial 1-800-YOU-WISH". The really funny part was when she would complain about getting the bird all the time. Well, duh!
-Jason
yikes.